Eternal Annihilation (v1.04)

[TheFatController]

Why Eternal Annihilation?
If I had no obligation to keep BA stable this is pretty much what BA8.00 would look like, I've created my own fork to test out some ideas and allow a bit more creativity and fix what I consider to be some long standing issues which are part BA's accepted gameplay. I've taken feedback from players and other mutators with the goal of making BA more fun, interesting and accessible.



Main changes from BA
- Lower Tech 2 bomber damage, cheaper Tech 2 gunships
- Tech 2 plant costs reduced, Tech 2 builder costs increased
- Economy tweaks including raised buildspeeds, cheaper moho mex's and more reward for not 'fast teching' (still a viable tactic however)
- Flying combombs no longer do 100% damage to all units
- Sampson/Slasher sightdistance nerf
- LRPC energy per shot increased significantly
- Tech 3 Assault Mech hp increase
- Upgrade your missile towers DPS with targeting facilities
- Improved Sea pathing and gameplay
- Many other small tweaks aiming to improve overall gameplay

New Units
- Fang (Core Light Gunship)
- Orcone (Arm Experimental Assault Mech)
- Krogtaar (Core Heavy Assault Mech)
- Atlantis (Arm Long Range Plasma Ship)
- Zulu (Core Long Range Plasma Ship)
- Atoll (Core Floating Plasma Deflector)
- Aurora (Arm Floating Plasma Deflector)
- Berg (Core Naval Plasma Battery (Defensive))
- Reef (Arm Naval Plasma Battery (Defensive))

Full Changelog Here

What's planned for future releases?
This depends entirely on how well received this mod is, I would like to build upon the above changes (and potentially revert any that really don't work), as there is no restriction on the look and feel of this mod there's also the potential for new models and effects however this all really depends on how popular it is and what the players want...

Download Eternal Annihilation V1.04

Comments, feedback etc below!

[Hobo Joe]

I support the idea but two forks being developed at the same time is a bad idea imo. You should team up with the BA2 people.

[luckywaldo7]

Zomg,

AA
BA
CA
...
He skipped DA and went right to EA! This man means business!

Sorry
:<
Had to be the first to say it.

Ok, carry on everyone...

[gonpost]

Hobo Joe, concerning the other BA II fork...

Super Mario wrote:
"The difference between ba one and ba two is?"

Nixa wrote:
"Graphics and Effects, then balance later on - basically updating BA"

Therefore, it would seem as if the other fork is more graphical, whereas this is more game play. Perhaps the two will meet up in the future?

[HectorMeyer]

Pretty interesting, lets see how this works out.

My thoughts about the T2 lab/conunit change: If the conunits are more expensive, they should also have accordingly more HP and buildpower. Especially the slow conbot and fragile conplane are very vulnerable on the frontlines. In general this seems like a good change though, maybe increase their costs even more.

What I'd also like to see for the future are some new gamemodes like a "tactics mode", where for example every player starts with a budget and buys some units, which then fight it out without construction units or buildings.

Also, a "diplomacy mode" similar to CA. I actually have a design document lying around somewhere where I thought about stuff like a trading interface and "territory spheres" which would be needed to make waterproof peace treaties including cooldown periods for canceling. Too bad I am not a programmer except for some old qbasic experience and making text fat with html. Maybe I am gonna get into lua sometimes.

[Jazcash]

There's so many *A's, I don't even know which way to look.
I appreciate most of these balance changes though. Although, Bladewings could use a bit more of a nerf than that
Also:

- Arm Maverick reload time reduced (0.945->0.9)

I lol'd

[SirArtturi]

- Flying combomb damage nerf

+1

It's a small step, but it's a step forward.

[Hackfresser]

i like the changes. i think.

what caught my attention is the reduction of T2 labs.
i think atm, T2 is underpowered. building 20 stumpies does so much more then getting a T2 lab up.
BUT you see shitloads of T2 and T3 in most games today. i see 3 reasons for this:
-huge games. the bigger the game, the easier it is to afford having a techer on your team. ever tried teching in a 4v4?
-noobs that get away with teching because the enemy noob is teching too.
-poeple are bored of playing with T1 only. T2 offers a much wider range of viable units.

weird situation when a rather weak strategy is actually dominant. what do you nerf, what do you buff?
(implement automatic elo tracking i say, and poeple will actually improve their play)

[TheFatController]

Fixed a bug with the flying combomb gadget, i'd added one extra bit of code to it before release and broke it but fixed in 1.01, thanks Niobium for reporting

[Jonny5isalivetm]

sounds decent..

I beg please add orcone back or similar arm big kick ass guy

I so miss him (((((((((((((((((

[scifi]

interesting this already has an autohost with people playing it

[Tim-the-maniac]

Looks interesting. Will you merge with normal BA if its generally accepted? Splitting the player base further should be avoided if possible imo

[albator]

I suggest to remov com explsion damage bluff to air unit when it is in the air.

I usually use a com in a trans to counter combomb or a com that is goinf in a trans toward a base with a view to Dgun it.
Also, I appreciate to Self D my com in a trans when I kill a krow

[TheFatController]

I suggest to remov com explsion damage bluff to air unit when it is in the air.

I usually use a com in a trans to counter combomb or a com that is goinf in a trans toward a base with a view to Dgun it.
Also, I appreciate to Self D my com in a trans when I kill a krow

/agree with this

[Daksad]

Nice initiative, the changes seem promising.

Also as it's not BA do you plan to bring major changes to water gameplay in the future?

[Jazcash]

Ima dig up some of my old balance suggestion posts:

http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 83#p414883
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 73#p363773
http://springrts.com/phpbb/viewtopic.ph ... 07#p442507

Just dug these up since I think you can consider them more seriously now. Note I don't agree with a lot of comments I've made in the past, a lot no longer apply, but for the most part, they still stand.

[==Troy==]

great to see an actually "semi-official" BA fork with the right directions!

[Kixu]

Fuck yeah!

[Nixa]

I lol'd, I make a few tiny changes that primarily effect large games and I get flamed, he makes a whole raft that effects basically only large games and is hailed a hero

[==Troy==]

his samsons still fire at ground though...


One of the radical changes to consider, which I have not seen being proposed before:

What about making the comwreck of your com if self-ded being only reclaimable by the enemy? With addition of a rezbot/conbot function to destroy a wreck rather than suck it up. (they can still rez it)

That should entirely prevent the dsd teching aspect of the game, if there is a need to change that.